Saturday, February 06, 2010

Stop me if you think you've heard this one before ...

"Because the president cannot rely on Congress to pass the legislation ... sources say the agreement as structured would allow the White House to use executive power to treat sectors of the Canadian economy as American by claiming supply chains are so integrated they cannot be separated.

While Canadian government officials declined to comment, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative distributed copies Thursday of the Canada-U.S. agreement for review by members of an industry advisory committee."

Harper and Co have been working hard since their dismissal of Parliament. Coincidentally they have decided now would be the best time to introduce a crippling new extension of NAFTA into our lives.

The Deal : In exchange for a 10 day window of opportunity in which Canadian corporations will theoretically be exempted from just some of Obama's protectionist Buy America economic provisions, Canadian provinces and municipalities will permanently relinquish their right to award local contracts to local businesses.Our taxes, our jobs. Bye bye 'Buy Local', hello WTO.

Or as Steve himself once put it :"I do think that the proliferation of domestic preferences in subnational government procurement is really problematic."

"It's good that it has given us a relationship with the United States that recognizes the degree of integration of our economies."

2010 was of course the date by which Manley predicted "the establishment of a North American economic and security community, the boundaries of which would be defined by a common external tariff and an outer security perimeter."

Or, as a Chicago School alumni once told me, Canadians will be ok with Canadian culture, industry, and military being absorbed into the US as long as they still get to vote and keep their flag.

O Holly Stick, that's too funny.Steve's previous Con fluffer was Ari Fleischer. When Steve hired him in April last year, Ari had just the month before gone on Hardball to say :"But after September 11, having been hit once, how could we take a chance that Saddam might not strike again?"

Chris : The only hope as I see it is to lean on the provinces, get them to back off agreeing to it.Hard to believe Steve got all 10 and the territories to agree to it in the first place. The current framing is that it's a necessary suck-up to the US, not a sell-out.Thank goodness we got rid of the SPP, huh? ;-(

It would be interesting to know what happens to sales taxes and GST when Big America Inc. is providing goods and services. Maybe the provinces could ask though I doubt they will.Be interesting to see how this plays out, but right now it looks like HMPM is exporting jobs, manufacturing capacity and tax revenue to the US. One can only hope this bites Steve's ass right off.You're right about the SPP. Giving it away is so much simpler than all those tedious negotiations our government planned to lose anyway.Grr.

The 1993 Election results generated a quip that G.S.T. stood for God Save the Tories. Odd then, that Chretien's Redbook of Election Promises did not include anything that was actually enacted ( to my current knowledge ).Oh. The Liberals, who ran against the GST and NAFTA, happily carried along with both.

We can't quite get the 'Banana Republic' act manipulated openly by the CIA together, though. Too Far North ?

"...“Saskatchewan and Canada have permanently opened up our local markets to the Americans, likely in preparation for a trade deal with the European Union as well, and in return the Americans have agreed to throw a few crumbs our way. Who benefits from this deal? It looks like the multinational corporations are the big winners, who can afford to come into local communities and undercut local mom and pop operations. Who loses? Regular taxpayers and wage-earners, local businesses, and democracy,” added Schoenfeldt..."